The Peyote Cult

THE PEYOTE CULT

By Weston La Barre

The Peyote Cult by Weston La Barre (1915-1996) is the classic work on peyotism, originating in Weston La Barre’s studies of the use of peyote in the rituals of fifteen Native American tribes in the 1930s. It has been revised many times. This is the latest edition (the fifth, enlarged edition), now back in print. 

For decades, readers on peyotism have enjoyed Weston La Barre's fascinating original study, which began when the author at age twenty-four, studied the rites of Native American tribes using Lophophora williamsii, the small, spineless, carrot-shaped peyote cactus growing in the Rio Grande Valley and Southward.

The Peyote Cult includes discussions of contemporary drug culture and experiments with altered states of consciousness and psychedelic drugs, including Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert and Carlos Casteneda. La Barre looks at the legal aspects of drug use, ritual drug use (including in the Native American Church), and the increasing spread of peyotism from the South-West to other Native American tribes. La Barre also explores related issues, such as anthropology, economics, chemistry, botany, pharmacology, and archeology. 

The Peyote Cult is still quite generally considered to be the one outstanding work on peyote... La Barre follows the search for the ‘mystic experience’ through use of chemical substances - a new fashion albeit as old as history - in an unusually objective manner.

Richard Evans Schultes, Psychedelic Review

The Peyote Cult includes extensive bibliographic and reference material, including lengthy and in-depth bibliographical essays and notes on audio and media material as well as journals and books. 

Illustrated with photographs and diagrams., and an index.